Abstract
Bribery and corruption are crimes without borders, not restricted to any jurisdictional boundaries nor sectoral confines but exist in both the public and private sector. Liberalisation and openness of global economies and increased financial flows means that stolen money and other illicit wealth could be easily taken out. Annual cross-border flow of proceeds of crime is estimated at $1-1.6 trillion. Half of this is from Less Developed or Developing countries (LDCs). Nigeria’s share is the highest due to the prevalence of corruption. President Muhammadu Buhari, in his speech at the 70th United Nations General Assembly in 2015 stated that $150 billion was looted from the government treasury in Nigeria between 1995 and 2015. Other estimates suggest that $182 billion was stolen from Nigeria and stashed offshore between 2000 and 2009. This paper seeks to critically evaluate the impacts as well as the weaknesses of the legal instruments for combating corruption internationally and domestically. It shall further discuss and analyse other domestic instruments with extra-territorial influence. Identifying the challenges and barriers in the law which most of the international organisations have set up means of exposing and combating corruption.
Keywords: Corruption, Extra-Territorial, International, Legal.